With Celestia practically living on the ship, the weeks that preceded the 'Convocation of Creatures' went fast for Praeratus. Yes, she practically lived with the former Centurion for several weeks. Celestia's tower was repaired in less than three days, but Celestia chose to continue to sleep on the ship for reasons unknown to both her little ponies and Praeratus.

Sure, the alicorn did come down to the city every day to do her royal duties (something Praeratus didn't care about since he had more important things to do), show her subjects she was fine and by extension quench their fear of the 'killer dragon from space and his beast' as they began called Praeratus and Cyranus, play with Philomena, eat and pass the time with Luna and little else, but after that she flied back to the ship to sleep. She even had breakfast with Praeratus.

Thanks to this, the monarch discovered certain things about Praeratus that revealed more about him: he had a piano on his living room (and not a futuristic-looking piano as she expected when he told her he had one, a wooden one that wouldn't have looked out of place in a music shop) that he knew how to play (and in her personal opinion, he was at least as good playing the piano as Countess Coloratura, maybe even better), was a good cook on the kitchen, he had a good singing voice and many more things. Plus, he also transferred directly to her mind the ability to speak ConTalk, the common language spoken by members of the Confederation (it turned out he wasn't speaking it when talking to them, he was speaking Equestrian. He had telepathic powers, so Celestia wasn't surprised by that, although she wondered where did he het the information from) in the unlikely possibility of meeting other people from the Confederation. She also told him things about herself Equestria: its origins, her enemies, her shenanigans, the time she had to banish her sister when she became corrupted and threatened to unleash an 'everlasting night' ... He actually took rather well the fact that Luna could have extinguished all life on Equus.

At the same time, Praeratus discovered things about Celestia: just like all ponies she liked to sing, but he thought her singing was superior to all others thanks to her lovely voice, she was just as good as him at cooking (although mostly sugary food), despite living in a medieval city found things like opera boring, liked it when he played the piano, was overall a kind woman, and more. She even tried to help him find the bioweapons despite her obvious fear of them.

Speaking of the monsters, Praeratus still hadn't found their hiding place despite his efforts. Since he couldn't find them using the drone, and refused to even scout the other lands until he got express permission from their rulers, he decided to search them the usual way: trekking around Equestria with the Wedge and look for signs of their presence with a motion radar and Cyranus' honed smell.

He didn't find jack. Sure, he found a footprint over here, a chipper scale over there, and random dead animals, but that was it. He only realized the beasts were still in Equestria when he went to a desert town called Appleloosa and found that an entire herd of cattle owned by a fellow called Braeburn (who turned out to be Applejack's cousin) had been slaughtered to the last one night... by a member of the same herd.

Apparently, the bull that was supposed to protect the herd from vermin and rustlers (why they still had cattle rustlers even with radios, trains, steel metalworking and tripwire still evaded him) had gone crazy and killed the cows. It required the effort nearly all the stallions of the town (including a huge one taller than Celestia called Troubleshoes Clyde, who despite his enormous size was quite shy and worked as a rodeo clown of all things) and the aid of several bisons (a species of bovids related of minotaurs that were even more primitive than then ponies, not even using metal tools and having a nomadic lifestyle) just to hold it in place, and even then many received injuries.

Not willing to risk letting a dangerous animal kill people and much less 'curing' it of its madness after killing livestock and injuring ponies and bisons, Praeratus decided that allowing the animal to live was simply too risky and put the bull out of its misery... by siccing Cyranus on it. He didn't know if it was because he killed a supposedly innocent animal or because Cyranus didn't wait for the bull to die to eat it (although there weren't children present), but the crowd got pissed and grabbed their pitchforks and shovels to lynch him.

A shaming speech, combined with an entire mob slammed into the ground telekinetically for three seconds, a shout or two and a laser discharge to the air, and the town promptly asked for forgiveness. When he told Celestia he expected her to be furious for his treatment of her subjects, but was pleasantly surprised when she told him that, as long as nopony got seriously hurt, it was fine if he wanted to defend himself. He was, according to her, their only hope against the demons.

However, despite the obvious evidence of the contrary, he didn't find the bioweapons. He searched signs of the monsters throughout the towns, cities, forests beaches, mountains and caves of Equestria, and yet found nothing. Either the things were even smarter than he though, which wouldn't had been weird given what they were, or he was getting sloppy. He hoped it was the later, because if it was the latter, the situation was even worse than it already was. Sure, there were only ten of those monsters, but as he had demonstrated to Celestia and the others, one was already a walking disater with a brain and a extreme hatred of anything not related to the Confederation.

There was something to be happy about, though. During those months before the meeting his activities with Celestia (letting her sleep on his ship, eat with him sometimes, play and even walk Cyranus and more), plus an interview with that despicable monster called press in which he told them his goal in Equus helped improve his until then not exactly good public image on Equestria, finally making the ponies see him at least as a somewhat friendly alien who, aside from rightfully considering them primitive and xenophobic, simply had a bad temper.

Naturally the ponies didn't like being called stupid (yes, for some reason they thought that being primitive equals being stupid, and that he was referring to just them and not the inhabitants of Equus at a whole), but after Praeratus showed them the technological wonders of the Confederation (spaceships in the middle of faster-than-light travel, worlds in the middle and after terraforming, space habitats, ecumenopolises... anything not related to war of course), they realized that indeed, their steam-powered trains and skyscrapers were nothing in comparison to what they had been shown. That said, Celestia begged him to not even mention the Hegemony, fearing that her ponies wouldn't take the existance of a slavery-practicing empire very well, something in which he agreed.

Of course, that didn't stop the journalists from asking random questions ('How old are you?', 'How many creatures live in the Confederation?' and similar), stupid questions ('Do you have chocolate in the Confederation?' or 'Are you sure you are not a wingless dragon?'), not so stupid questions ('Just how dangerous are these bioweapons', ' and even ' Are you a god?', to which he obviously said no) and such. It also turned out that democracy hadn't been invented in Equus, since they reacted with astonishment when he said that the President of the Confederation was chosen by its people, not his predecessor, and that the title was not hereditary.

The rest of the time was uneventful, with him doing little else aside from searching for the monsters.

One day, though, he decided to teach Celestia how to defend herself without magic and, well...

“So...” Celestia asked, watching as Praeratus mounted what he called a 'shooting range', putting holographic generators on the floor of the training yard of the palace, separated from each other by several meters, with the closest ten meters away and the farthest right at the end, next to the targets the guards used when training with crossbows. “, what are we doing again?” She had to scream because of the distance between them.

“I'm going to teach you how to handle a weapon to defend. A real weapon, not those things you call swords!”

“Don't you have swords too? Made of metal I mean.” Asked Luna from behind them, unkowingly petting Cyranus, who didn't mind. After several weeks of going with Praeratus to the castle, the gorgonops had taken a liking to the blue alicorn. The same couldn't be said for all the other ponies though.

“Those are real swords, with nanonamilate blades of stainless durasteel: their edges are so sharp that they can your toughest metals with barely any effort even if wielded by a pegasus, not oversized iron daggers that can't cut thatch even when when used by me.” Said Praeratus derisively before placing the last and farthest generator. Next to him laid a box containing several weapons that Praeratus brought from his personal armory.

“Oh.” She said dejectedly. She didn't like to be reminded of just how useless was the Royal Guard, or at least compared to Praeratus.

Praeratus had told her earlier that day that he would teach her how to use his guns. When asked way, he said that, sooner or later, Celestia would end up facing the monsters again, and he knew that, since her main-no, only way to fight was with magic (when she told him that earth ponies possessed great strength and that alicorns had it too, Praeraruts reminded her that he, despite being much, much stronger than her, wasn't winning the brawl witht the bioweapon that attacked Canterlot until Cyranus came to his aid, even emphasizing the fact he was wearing a suit that made him twice as strong at that moment), she'll had to resort to more 'mundane' means to defend herself.

Of course, he doubted ponies saw ray guns and the pinnacle of projectile-based weaponry as anything but mundane.

“Done!” Said Praeratus just before activating the holograms, grabbing the box with the guns, getting up from his crouching stance and jogging to her position.

Celestia was unable to hide the blush on her muzzle when she saw the therawyrm run towards her, , since he was only wearing cargo pants (which she presumed had some gimmick of his hidden) and a short-sleeved shirt that showed his burly arms, despite the fact she had been seeing those same arms for nearly a month and a half by now. She herself was wearing a simple blouse that showed a bit of cleavage and skinny jeans, plus her regalia.

“Now.” He said after arriving to ther side and standing next to her, leaving the box in the ground. “I'm going to teach you how to properly hold, aim and shoot firearms. Each of them has a different type and utility, but today, I'm going to teach you handguns.” With that he opened the box, showing Celestia the weapons inside, before grabbing one of them and closing the box.

It was an L-shaped device made of an uknown metal, with a trigger between the barrel and the grip of the thing surrounded by a loop, and something akin to markers on top of it the barrel.

“This right here is a P-95 semi-auto laser pistol. Laser weapons have three chief advantages over bullets and plasma: pulses, bursts and beams always move at the speed of light, and therefore are undodgeable; the shoots have no mass, and no mass means no recoil; and the 'magazines' are actually batteries that hold nearly unlimited 'shots', meaning that you only need to watch out for overheating.” Explained Praeratus as he showed her the weapon. By now a small group of guards and castle staff had come to see the demonstration from behind them alongside the Princess of the Night and Cyranus.

“Most pistols, like this one, can fire laser pulses in two settings, red and blue: the red frequency produces less heat and thus lets the shooter fire more pulses, but in turn has less power behind each pulse; the blue is the inverse, with a blue pulse being nearly thrice as powerful as a red one but also generating much more heat, and therefore forcing the shooter to reduce their rate of fire.”

He continued explaining about the pistol: the safety, the cooling mechanism that opened the gun to allow the excess heat to dissipate in case of overheating, the differences between cyclical and effective rates of fire, the effective range of the laser pulse before it dissipated into harmless particles, to always treat it as if it always were loaded and never aim it towards other people...

And after that, the first test.

“Okay, I told you the basics, now it's your turn to show me you got them. First, what's the first step?”

“Focus the target while keeping the finger off the trigger.” Replied Celestia, doing as she said and aiming at the closest hologram. By this point the small group behind them had grown to a veritable crowd that spoke in low tones, excited to see their princess fire the alien weapon.

“Second step?”

“Inhale, exhale.”

“Third st-... will you morons just the frack up already!? She can't concentrate with all that racket!” He shouted to the assembled princess, guards, maids, butlers and rare noble that were gossiping behind the two, making them shut up immediatly. Ten or twelve he could ignore, but not over fifty people speaking while he was teaching a woman that until a few weeks ago didn't even believe in the existance of laser weapons how to shoot one!

The xeno-hunter snorted and turned back to Celestia, who was still focusing on the target. That was actually good, she didn't get distracted from her goal.

“Third step?”

“Switch the safety.” Said Celestia while doing so with her thumb.

“Last step?”

Celestia didn't even bother to respond before firing. The crowd, who cringed in preparation for a thunder-like blast, didn't expect the actually quiet sound that came from the little weapon. Celestia, on the other hand, whooped with laughter and danced like a filly when she saw the hologram ripple when the pulse hit it.

“I DID IT! I DID IT!” Cried Celestia in pure joy, literally prancing to Praeratus and hugging him with all her strength. The therawyrm laughed and, seeing no harm on doing it, hugged the alicorn back, lifted her in the air and twirled around with her. He wanted her to feel happy for passing the tirst trial with weapons, especially since it wasn't just about the alicorn being able to defend herself from the bioweapons. He wanted her to lose her fear of them.

Neither Luna nor her friends (the former especially since she was her sister and the guardian of dreams) knew it, but Celestia was still traumatized by the events of two hundred years ago, and therefore, still had nightmares from time to time, nightmares involving the 'demons', although at least she stopped waking up screaming; in fact, this was why she kept sleeping on his ship, feeling secure on its walls of metal and with Praerauts near her. Praeratus hoped that, by giving her a more reliable way to defend herself in case the things attacked (which would), her trauma lessened. Truthfully he knew there were much better ways to handle her trauma, but he wasn't a therapist and really believed that facing your fears was the best way to overcome them, just like him; when the Hegemony War began he was deeply in fear of titanic beasts, but by its end he only felt anger when fighting them (of course, it helped that their size made them the ultimate target for, well, everything from handguns to naval ordnance).

Of course, he didn't realize that he was essentially with Celestia right in front of her sister, who was smiling lightly at the sight, and subjects, who were talking again, this time about how cute they were like that.

That was until a guard came running.

“Your majesties!” He cried while moving through the crowd and entering the training yard. “I have news of... uh?” The guard became dumbfounded when he saw the Princess of the Day being lifted by the draconic alien, both of whom were looking right back at him.“Princess Celestia?”

Celestia blushed and asked Praeratus to let her down.

“Yes, my little pony?”

The stallion remembered he was supposed to be in a hurry and frantically said: “It's about the Convocation of the Creatures! The date of the meeting has been pushed forward to Friday!”

Celestia gasped in horror. It was Monday! They hadn't prepared for the Convocation!

Celestia, after several seconds of panic, managed to calm herself. They still had four days to prepare for the meeting with the other rulers.

“There's no need to worry, we still have four days until the Convocation, we can prepare. Twilight can tell her friends and call Cadance, Praeratus can wear that armor...” She was referring to the Centurion power armor that Praeratus kept on the living room of the ship.

Praeratus promptly threw a wrench into her plans with another problem.

“No way in Hell I'm going to bring my Centurion armor to the Convention .”

“What!?” Exclaimed Celestia. “B-but why not!? It would leave an impression in the leaders!”

“Why not? Because it's not some uniform made to wear in a parade, it's the most sophisticated piece of infantry armour technology in the Confederation, maybe even the galaxy, despite having not been upgraded for two hundred years!” Replied Praeratus. “Besides, if you want me to leave an impression, just going will suffice. I'm an alien, remember?”

“Yes, but they'll surely mistake you for a dragon at first, especially Dragonlord Ember. Also, if you won't bring your armor to the meeting, what will you wear?”

“I think Rarity can sew a suit fit for him sister.” Suggested Luna.

Praeratus chuckled. “There's no need for that.”

The Convocation of the Creatures was set in a castle-like building called Hall of Unity erected in Mount Metazoa, a mountain placed in some place in Equestria whose name Praeratus didn't bother to know. According to Celestia, most of those who were going would arrive via flying in airships, flying normally or simply going by ground in trains.

Naturally this meant that the dragons, yaks, changelings and many other races entering the Hall of Unity freaked out when they saw an huge, black metal hulk larger than most dragons covered in depictions of monsters fly over the building of the meeting and landing on the parking lot for airships and balloons and nearly blowing them away with its sheer presence.

In the ship's cockpit, Praeratus, Twilight, Celestia, a few guards and a unicorn mare Praeratus had the pleasure to meet before, Raven Inkwell, Celestia's aide. Luna had decided to stay in Canterlot since the Convention would last two days, and since Praeratus didn't trust in Cyranus to rein himself in the presence of so many new alien species (most of which resembled for some reason animals; again Praeratus himself didn't judge) he let him stay with the blue alicorn.

The three women were looking with worry at the small chaos the ship caused with its presence, watching with worry as the leaders of all lands and their retinue freaked out at the sight of the ship.

“What are we going to, urk, tell them.” Managed to say Twilight before vomiting on a bag provided by Praeratus. The alicorn may have been used to fly since Rainbow Dash helped her when she received her wings, but she had never flied on a vehicle that literally took less than twenty seconds to go from Canterlot to Mount Metazoa. Raven and the guards had the same problem as her, but Celestia, having gone to the Moon (and even walked on it and wearing space suits, made by Praeratus even!) and near the Sun before with Praeratus alongside Luna, wasn't affected.

“I don't think there's need for that Twilight. As soon as they see us coming out of the ship they'll calm down, and if not we'll just talk to them... Before they do something stupid that's it.” Said the alabaster alicorn, dressed on the pink dress she wore on the last Grand Galloping Gala.

Said former Centurion (who was dressed in the same clothes from four days prior), on the other hand, was wondering how the hell did this primitive world have a gyrocopter. Sure, he had seen locomotives and motorboats, but until now no heavier than air aircraft. That said, what Celestia said about the crowd that was growing in front of the ship gave something to think.

“I can handle that.” He said before pressing two buttons, the first bringing out a microphone in front of him and the second deploying the external speakers of the ship. He used them mostly to broadcast mating calls and, in the case of people when bounty hunting, demoralizing insults. “Will the morons outside shut the frack up!?” He screamed in the mic, scaring the natives gathered in front of the ship. “You are making so much noise I could heard you from space, and just so you know, there's no sound in space!”

“Praeratus...” Muttered Celestia, blushing in embarrasment. Unlike her ponies, she already knew what 'frack' meant thanks to Praeratus telling her. It wasn't pretty, descending from millenia old, just as ugly word that, while still used, it wasn't spoked that much, nor was it in the same context as 'frack', which was used mostly in war and violent things in general. The parent word, on the other hand...

“Really?” Said Twilight, ignoring her fellow princess. “Then why you say the other-”

“Artifical audio.” Responded Praeratus before Celestia could finish the sentence.

(Not many knew this, but for some reason ether drakes and other spaceborne fauna could produce noise such as roaring in spite of the natural law that dictated that sound waves couldn't in a vacuum. This fact always mortified biologists.)

Praeratus' 'tactic' worked, and the natives between them and the Hall of Unity dispersed... except a small group consisting of a young-looking, small (as in, much taller than Spike but shorter than Celestia, and nowhere as tall or massive as a therawyrm) and blue-scaled horned dragoness with a cautious look on her face, two changelings taller than the rest, one green and the other dark purple (King Thorax and his brother Pharynx), a male yak with eyes covered by hair, a brown griffon who was inspecting the ship with interest, a deer that looked like royalty and looking at the ship with a mix of anger and fear, and...

“Queen Novo!” Said Twilight happily before rushing to the door.

Celestia giggled at Praeratus' confused look. “She's the Princess of Friendship, remember?”

Praeratus shrugged. “Well, I suppose you'll want to speak with the others. I'll get dressed.” With that he stood up from the pilot's chair and went to the bedroom, while Celestia decided to come out of the ship with Raven and the guards.

While down the stairs, Celestia smiled when she saw the Queen of Mount Aris and the other leaders (Dragon Lord Ember of the Dragon Lands, Prince Rutheford of Yakyakistan, King Aspen of the Everfree Forest, King Thorax and his brother Pharynx, and lord Gestal of Griffonstone) but frowned when she saw Twilight walking around as if looking for someone. Before she could walk to her, Novo called her.

“Celestia, we're over here!” Said Novo.

“Novo!” Smiled the princess, coming over the queen and hugging her, ignoring the stares of the others. “Long time no see!”

“Long time? It's been only a little more than a month and two weeks!”

“Ahem.” Coughed a voice behind her. Looking back she saw a familiar, green-colored changeling king smiling at her. “Aren't your forgetting somepony? And unlike Novo, It HAS been a long time since we've seen each other, Princess Celestia”

“Thorax!” She said before hugging him too with all her strength.

“I'm happy to see you too Princess Celestia, but you'll end up breaking my back if you keep hugging me like that.”

“Oh. Sorry” She let him go. “But still, I'm happy to see you guys again after-”

“Is that the alien's ship?” Interrupted Ember. “I thought it would be bigger. I mean, it IS big, but I don't think an adult dragon could even get inside that thing.”

“What?”

“You send a letter to each of us the previous week, remember?” Said Thorax. “About a dragon-like alien called Praeratus and his dog-like friends that came to Equus to hunt down and destroy the monsters that annihilated the Royal Army and nearly killed you two hundred years ago by order of some 'Confederation', took out the Storm King and his invasion force, stopped an horde of monsters, including an Ursa Major and a magic-proof demons, saved you from the brink of death, and has something important to ask us. Besides, Novo here told us about it.”

“You didn't tell them why does he want to speak with them?”

“I supposed he'd prefer to tell them in person.” Said Novo sheepishly.

“Maybe you're right.” Celestia turned to Ember. “As for Praeratus, he only looks somewhat like a dragon without tail nor wings; he's actually a synapsid, which is a class of reptiles with mammal traits like hair and mammary glands, although his species, the therawyrms, lack any kind of body hair.”

“So, he's not a real dragon?” Said the Dragon Lord in a dejected tone. She was probably hoping to see a literal space dragon, although Celestia doubted she would react well to an image of a dragon-like monster big enough to swallow her father whole.

“No, but calling him one would be a compliment. Also...”

“Is this thing really capable of going to space?” Asked lord Gestal, carefully inspecting a carving depicting some kind of land shark with a beaked mouth. “It does have wings and those strange rockets, but they look like they need to air to operate.”

“Actually those aren't rockets, those are plasma engines that allow the ship to move through realspace.”

“Plasma? And realspace?”

Celestia sighed. Now she understood what Praeratus felt each time a pony asked him something for genuine curisity but that he didn't really want to explain.

“I can't really explain it, but plasma is basically very hot fire, so hot that it can reduce a dagon to cinders; believe me, I've seen enchanted rods to test the heat of lava melt like chocolate just by being near the fumes of the engines. In this case, though, it's simply used to move a three hundred tons spaceship through realspace.” The alicorn princess explained.

Ember, who had walked to the main landing gear to touch it, took a couple of steps back when she heard Celestia, clearly unnerved by the fact that there was fire hot enough to burn and even kill dragons, which weren't supposed to feel the heat of fire at all.

“As for realspace, it's the dimension we're standing on , and Praeratus didn't come to Equus through a magic portal. In fact, last month he took me and Princess Luna to the Moon to see Equus from there!”

“Fascinating...” Breathed Gestal in wonder. In his mind, he tried to calculate how much gold would this 'Praeratus' ask to give him a ride to outer space... and realized just as quickly that the price might be simply too much, that the alien might not be interested at all in gold, or that the precious metal may not even be used as currency on the 'Confederation' he came from. If he knew that gold was in fact viable currency in the Confederation he would have an orgasm... as long as he exchanged it for confederal credits backed by energy that's it.

“Yak wonders if alien dragon is strong!” Wondered Rutheford the way yaks did, screaming what he thought.

“Oh, he is strong, he can lift ten tons without breaking a sweat.”

“Oooh! Yak is excited to meet space dragon!”

“Me too.” Agreed Ember.

“Well, I suppose I'm three.” Said Gestal.

King Aspen, in contrast to his fellow leaders, wasn't happy at all.

“Why are you excited to meet this creature? He could be in the side of the demons and lying to you to spy on Equus for all you know!” Exclaimed the deer king.

Celestia sighed in exasperation and facepalmed. NOW she felt how did Praeratus feel when Chancellor Neighsay accussed him.

“You are lucky that Praeratus is still inside changing clothes instead of being here hearing you insult him.”

“I am.” Said a voice behind them in a cold tone.

The natives looked back to see Praeratus walking down the stairs of his ship. The former Centurion had put on the closest thing he had to a formal suit: his mess dress uniform from when he was still in the military. Since High Command wanted the Centurions to remain anonymous to the public to further enhance their image as mighty soldiers and make retaliation against then outside of combat difficult (they didn't have families, but terrorists could get creative), the hyper-soldiers never wore anything aside from their powered armor in parades, public interviews and such; even when they absolutely had to take off their helmets they used cloakin fields that changed their skin color). Messes with other Centurions, parties with Gene Warriors and private occasions were exempt from this though.

Celestia thought that the blue cloak, the golden shoulder epalettes, the black tie and the tan beret he was wearing all looked good on him, although she was puzzled by the fact he wore brown 'shoes' when there was no need for that (and always confused her why did he wear them when it was obvious his feet didn't really need them).

Of course, only Celestia was focusing on the way he was dressed. The others were busy trying to not run away when they saw Praeratus, who according to Celestia was a rather nice guy if not angered, stomping towards the king of the Everfree Forest with a rather deep frown on his face.

Aspen, either too stubborn to be intimidated by this or too stupid to realize the error he commited, didn't back away from the approaching alien that stopped in front of the group, who realized just how big he was: the only one who matched his height was Prince Ruthefort, and even the rather stout yak was nowhere near as muscular as the alien (especially since at least a good part of his 'bulk' was actually fur). Ember in particular noted he really wasn't that similar to a dragon (he lacked a tail, wings and slitted eyes, and at that distance she could see that he had scaly skin and not actual scales), Praeratus was much more robust than a dragon of a similar height. The natives flinched when the angry alien stepped forward, expecting him to obliterate Aspen, who was still glaring up at him.

Fortunately for the hart, Praeratus ignored him and turned to Novo to hug her, a gesture she eagerly reeturned with a smile, before turning to Thorax and extending his arm. He was not smiling, but he wasn't frowning either, so Thorax assumed everything was good and Aspend comment didn't aggravate him.

“I guess you're the king of the changelings. I'm Praeratus, xeno-hunter and former warrant officer of the Confederation.” Said Praeratus while waiting for the changeling king to shake his hand.

Thorax, shaking off his daze, smiled and grabbed Praeratus claw with excitement, and why not? He was the first inhabitant of Equus that shook hands with an alien from outer space!

“I am. My name is Thorax and this” He made a gesture to his brother. “, is Captain Pharynx, who like the name says is Captain of the Changeling Guard and my older brother. It's incredible to see a real life alien with my own eyes.”

“Yes, but unfortunately I'm also the 'only good one' in Equus at the moment, so to speak.” He said, making Thorax sigh.

Praeratus looked over the darker changeling and nodded, earning another nod from the dark green changeling. He liked the way he stood and inspected him, wary of him but not in an hostile way.

Rutheford, impatient like the yak he was and waiting to measure the strength of the therawyrm, shoved Thorax aside and grabbed Praeratus' hand.

“Yak is Prince of Yakyakistan! Yak would like to test strength of space dragon!” Yelled the boisterous bull while shaking and pressing the therawyrm's hand with all his strength. Had Praeratus been a pony or another inhabitant of Equus the greeting would have crushed his hand, but even yaks were not as strong as therawyrms, much less Centurions. It was comical to see the yak accidentaly trying to crush the hand of the therawyrm to no avail.

'Yeah, well, good luck with that Rutheford' Thought Praeratus before turning to the brown griffon.

“I'm lord Gesalt of Griffonstone, and I will be happy to speak with you about the” He leaned forward and whispered the next part.” ... problems. We don't want to start a panic while surrounded by Equus' leaders after all.”

Praeratus nodded. This guy knew the danger the bioweapons posed just by merely being alive. He finally turned to the other female monarch of the group, the blue dragoness, who had been staring at him since he arrived and was still staring like she was in a trance. Praeratus thought it was the infamous 'Uncanny Effect', the same that affected species when they saw things that resembled them yet had something off about them

“Well?” He asked. The girl came out of her trance.

“Eh... yeah, hey there mister alien, nice to meet you and the other creatures.”

“Something tells me you aren't feeling awkward just because of me or my appearance.” He said.

“Sorry, it's just that I'm new to this 'diplomacy and politics' thing when it comes to non-dragons. Heck, most dragons aren't into actually talking to others to ask for things, preferring to just take their stuff by force. That only changed when a friend of mine called Spike-”

“Spike the dragon from Ponyville?” Said Praeratus in an interesed tone. “Green eyes, purple scales, green fins and all that?”

“Yes! Do you know him?”

“Well yeah, he was at Canterlot with Twilight and the others... when the monsters attacked.”

Ember stayed quiet for a few moments, not knowing what to say about that day. According to the letter she received, ponies died, something practically unheard of in these times given how protective their princesses were of them. Of course, they themselves were ponies...

“...did ponies actually die on the attack?” She asked Celestia, making her sigh.

“Yes, several were turned to stone by a cockatrice and then shattered by a bugbear, and one got bitten in two by the demon. Fortunately, those were the only casualties, but it was the first time in two hundred years since ponies were killed. Of course, everypony would have died, and after that the entire world, if not for Praeratus taking the horde of beasts and the demon out.”

“Oh. Then thank you for saving him and his friends.” The blue dragoness said in a grateful tone and with a smile.

“I had to do it, no one else could.” Replied Praeratus before asking something that itched him. “But how did he help you, and with what?”

“Spike was the one who helped Ember become the Dragon Lord.” Became to explain Celestia. At another time this would have been Twilight's shtick (as Discord and Pinkie called her obstination for explaining things), but the purple alicorn was still searching for someone. “He helped her persevere through the obstacles of the trial to obtain the Bloodstone Scepter, and despite being the one dragon managing to actually end the course, chose to give the Scepter to the young princess.”

'Princess?' Thought Praeratus, puzzled by the fact that firebreathing reptiles had princesses. 'Just how many princes and princesses are there? There's Celestia, Luna, Twilight, Skystar that other, the blondie and now a dragon. Wait, I forgot, they don't even have republics'

Just when Celestia finished her explanation, the deer in the group decided to butt in. Just not in a good way.

“So, you must be the alien that has been spying on my kingdom, terrifying my people with a metallic monster that spews light and slaughtered innocent animals that could have been saved!”

“And you must be the leader of a kingdom so damn primitive that it makes ponies look advanced by comparison, which is quite a feat considering that they don't even have computers nor jet aircraft.” He turned to Celestia and Raven. “No offense.”

“None taken, you're completely right.”

Praeratus looked back at the hart “And for the record, I had to make sure the demons weren't hiding in 'your' kingdom; a single monster that can heal life-threatening wounds a grave threat, ten are simply impossible for you to come.”

Aspen scoffed. “Once we managed to wrap Canterlot and capture the princesses thanks to our magic, I doubt that-”

“And another thing, the monsers are completely impervious to magic. Not only that, they can use psionics, which for what I've seen are more powerful than magic and which I believe are the reason magic doesn't work against them or me.”

“And pray tell, why do you think these 'psionics' would be more powerful than our magic?” Aspen Asked in an arrogant tone.

Instead of replying with words, Praeratus decided to do it with actions: he raised his hand, formed a psionic bomb and launched the projectile made of pure psionic energy upwards at an height that barely exceeded that of the Hall of Unity . The explosion forced everyone in the area to close their eyes, and even then many were thrown back by the shockwave, and all the windows of the side of the Hall facing the explosion shattered. Somehow, despite the force of the shockwave, the Special Forces beret that Praeratus wore stayed on his head.

As Praeratus expected, his demonstration of power terrified the non-pony natives and most of Celestia's entourage; Celestia herself was only a bit surprised by his action, Novo looked impressed by his action (she had been told he used that same 'spell' to vaporize the Storm King and wreck the interior of the palace, but seeing it in person was much impressive than hearing about it) and Twilight simply stood up again after being knocked down by the shockwave and kept searching for someone. On the other hand, he saw the fear in the eyes of Thorax and his brother, shock in Gestal's, and awe in Ember's. He couldn't see the look on Rutheford's eyes because the fur of his head was in the way, but a quick probe to his mind allowed the therawyrm see that the yak was even more excited to fight him. Why did he want to fight someone that clearly outclassed evaded him.

But it was the reaction of the King of the Everfree Forest what he wanted to see.

The formerly angry and arrogant hart was now staring at where the psionic bomb exploded with wide, terrified eyes that made clear he had never seen something like that. This made Praeratus smile internally.

Celestia grabbed his arm to attract his attention and glared at him while touching her forehead. Praeratus knew what this meant, she wanted to talk to him through telepathy. They did this when they wanted to speak in public without having to do so verbally.

'Why did you do that!?' Exclaimed Celestia. 'You may have started a war with Equestria and the deer, maybe even other races!'

'Celestia, I'm not part of Equestria, remember? I'm still a citizen of the Confederation, not of Equestria. Besides, I'm pretty sure Aspen wouldn't be stupid enough to declare war against a country ruled by two powerful alicorns, one of whom is the one charged with raising and lowering the Sun. If he's sane, he won't do such a thing' He didn't of about Aspen just said about capturing Celestia and Luna before with roots. Knowing them they probably let him to satisfy his ego.

'I know that' Admitted Celestia. 'But still, he might declare war on the Confederation and by extension on you'

'Celestia. do you really think that a bunch of primitives, who are even more primitive than ponies that at best use spears and swords in times of war, could scratch the hull of my ship or even get past the shield and defense systems, or me and Cyranus?', inquired Praeratus.

'Okay, I can't argue with that'

'Plus, it'll be him and his magic and soldiers against an interstellar federation with more troopers than Equus has inhabitants, not counting Gene Warriors, heavy troopers or psionics and, last but not least, starships that can easily turn his precious forest to a steaming crater or a glassed spot from well beyond the Sun with just a press of a button. And even ignoring that fact, I think you forgot that the Confederation is literally in another galaxy...'

'Alright alright I get it, Aspen's an idiot!'

“Not an idiot, a brainless moron.” Replied Praeratus verbally before turning to a still shocked Aspen and snapped his fingers in front of his muzzle, bringing him out of his stupor.

“And for your information, I'm pretty sure that those 'innocent animals' were in fact savage monsters from a place that everyone in Equestria fears, and that was even before the bioweapons tore their minds apart and directed them to Canterlot to kill people, which they did. I didn't just save a city, I also secured your home by exterminating them. I'm a xeno-hunter, a type of bounty hunter whose y job is literally hunt dangerous beasts to make sure they don't endanger people's lives. Just take a look at my ship: each of those carvings is a beast I killed, and believe me, some of those make Ursa Majors look like giant teddy bears by comparison.”

He waited for the deer king to give some stupid answer, like not having the right to kill animals or something like that.

Instead, he kept staring at him in fear. It was Gesalt who asked him.

“How commited are you to the job? Also, just so you know, dragons aren't considered civilized creatures by many races.”

“If I had to choose between a dragon who has killed and all the animals of Equus I'd slaughter each and every stinking bear, goat, cow, timber wolf, lion manticore, rabbit, hydra, cockatrice, bugbear, giant ass bear and whatever else rather than go after some petty criminal that you definitely can take care of, even if they're a murderer. And trust me, I can render all animal life on this planet extinct or completley docile. Of course, to do that I would have to use my ship or put all my effort on brainwashing them, but I think you get the principal of the thing.”

They did. Well, sort of.

“Incredible.” Breathed the griffon lord, astonished by the determination of the alien bounty hunter.

“Yes! That's what yak call commitment!” Agreed Rutheford.

Twilight, after spendind all her time since they came to Mount Metazoa wandering around, finally gave up on her search and returned to the group. The crowd that had assembled around the ship and witnessed the psionic explosion had dispersed, allowing the Princess of Friendship to go to them.

“Has anypony seen Princess Cadance of the Crystal Empire? I searched everywhere and couldn't find her.”

“Cadance!” Said Celestia. “You're right, she was supposed to come before us!”

“I believe we should discuss this inside the Hall.” Said Novo.

“Indeed.” Agreed Praeratus while staring at the other natives away from them, who stared back with a bit of fear. He had a bad feeling about this.

The Hall of Unity was filled to the brim with dignitaries, representatives and leaders of all lands and races attending the Convocation: breezies, spiders, abyssinians, bat ponies, Saddle Arabians, zebras, minotaurs... In another occassion these beings would have been talking to each other about important things (treaties, old feuds, importation and exportation, shared festivities), but this time they were all looking warily at the imposing dragon-like alien standing next the Princess of the Sun and the rulers of Mount Aris, Griffonstone, the Changeling Kingdom, the Dragon Lands and Yakyakistan. King Aspen wasn't among them, too terrified of the alien.

Praeratus didn't have to probe the minds of the people in the Hall to know that most of them were scared shitless of him, just seeing them look away when he looked at them let him know that. Some of them, however, were angry that 'some freak dragon from space' was not giving them the respect they deserved. In another time he would have beaten the shit out of them and ordered him to respect him (either because he was a veteran of a war that made any conflict they had look like a mere snowball fight, they were king-obsessed morons, he a member of a super advanced civilization or something like that), but the presence of friendly aliens and the simple fact that Celestia wouldn't have liked it limited him to simply glare, which also worked.

(Praeratus didn't know it, but since the Everfree forest was right in the middle of Equestria, the deer were citizens and therefore bound to its rules in a technical stand-point, but they considered themselves independent and Celestia always treated the forested zones near their village as foreign territory.)

The Princess of Friendship Twilight Sparkle and Raven Inkwell weren't with them either, having gone to the library of the Hall to update the archives with new equestrian documents alongside several other librarians and archivists.

“We received a letter that said that Princess Cadance was unable to come to the Convocation due to some kind of problem back at the Empire.” Said Gestal.

“Problem?” Said Celestia in a worried tone.

“Apparently there was an issue in the Crystal Empire. Something about her daughter catching the flu and not wanting to leave him alone.”

When Praeratus had asked Celestia who was this Cadance weeks before, she told him she was the Princess of Love and ruler of the Crystal Empire, telling him about Sombra, the Crystal Heart, Flurry Heart and all that, and that her husband, Prince Shining Armor, was the previous Captain of the Royal Guard and Twilight's older brother. Celestia told him that he was quite furious for what Praeratus did to his sister, to which he replied if he knew what she did. When Celestia said that he knew but didn't care, Praeratus made clear that if the unicorn decided to attack him, he would rip his horn and shove it where the Sun wouldn't shine and that he would do the same to the so called 'Princess of Love' (which had unfortunate implications if thought about it) if she tried to do the same. He didn't care if they were parents, if they attacked him just because he became rightfully getting angry at Twilight for making his job difficult and possibly dooming the planet he'll defend himself. Besides, he wouldn't kill them, he'll just injure them badly to make them understand. Celestia grimaced at that, but accepted it: there was nothing she could do, and even she thought that Shining Armor was foolish.

After that he told them what he wanted, which to their astonishment was surprisingly easy: their permission to look for the bioweapons on their countries. When asked why hadn't he done already, he replied that he still required official permission from the most influential countries. He already did had Celestia and Luna's, now he needed theirs. When asked about the Everfree Forest, he simply replied that he didn't know that people could actually live in such a hellish place (with sarcastic emphasis on 'hellish').

While the royals discussed about his petition, Praeratus noted that Thorax, who along with his brother sat at a table some distance away from the others, seemed to be uncomfortable with the looks the assembled creatures were giving at him, with some even glaring with anger; Pharynx, on the other hand, was glaring back at them. The xeno-hunter decided to speak with them a bit, with and intrigued Celestia in tow.

Having seen the exact same thing happen at the embassies of the Acropolis, it was obvious to him that this was racism. Wanting to know more about the issue, Praeratus walked to the changeling brothers and sat witht hem alongside Celestia.

“I guess changelings aren't exactly liked here.”

“No, we aren't. But I can't really blame them for thinking that we might drain them of their love.”

This puzzled Praeratus. Draining love? “What do you meant with 'draining love'?”

Thorax looked down and sighed before looking back at him. “Before I became the King of the Changelings, and before we learned that we could share love to live, our race had to steal the love of others to survive. Our previous queen, Chrysalis, decided to attack Canterlot by impersonating Princess Cadance on her wedding day and hypnotizing Shining Armor to weaken the magic dome he created to protect the city, allowing the changeling army outside to attack, and she could have succeeded if not for the love the bride and groom had for each other creating a wave that pushed us out of the city.

Celestia then told him about of when Thorax ran away to the Crystal Empire after Chrysalis' defeat, of when he befriended Spike, of how he became the first Changeling King after the second defeat of Chrysalis...

“The changelings became fast friends with Equestria, but as the saying says some wounds don't heal at all. Most races still fear and distrust changelings, and even many ponies, despite their friendliness, do not like them at all.” Finished a saddened Celestia.

“I'm certain that your Confederation does not have this problem.” Said Thorax.

“Actually, the same thing does happens in the Confederation. Not from nor to therawyrms fortunately, we've long earned our place, but I've witnessed it from others.”

“Really?” Thorax asked.

“Yes. Some species that are part of the Confederation now were our enemies in the past, and many people like to remind them that fact. Violently if they can.” He couldn't remember how many riots and fights began because a group of älfs was refused service in a zoklap-manned restaurant because of the Sendarín Skirmish, or the fights between recruits because some were othilads, the last species whose empire achieved the Core status. And that was without counting sapient synths, former marauders, nomads and such groups. “Give it time, it had been only a little more than half a year since then.”

And suddenly, the peaceful ambience got destroyed by a single sentence.

“The ponies shouldn't have accepted the bugs at all! And neither some dragon freak some space!” Said rough a voice behind them. It was a dark green-scaled dragon horns, small enough to not crouch to not hit the ceiling yet taller than Praeratus. “Of course, it's a pony we're talking about here, and everyone knows they're stupid idiots that have trust in everything.” It (yes, it) scoffed in derision.

Praeratus' head snapped so fast to the dragon that neither Celestia nor the changelings saw it move. Celestia, having seen him do it so many times before (mostly when Cyranus tried to simulate a cat in the piano), wasn't surprised by it, only by the why. Thorax and Pharynx, on the other hand, were freaked out.

“Gnasher...” Growled Ember, facepalming at the dragon's attitude. Gnasher was one of those dragons who still refused to befriend ponies, or other creatures in general. Despite her actually ordering them to at least not attack other creatures, some still did it, mostly out of spite that such a 'wimp' became their new Dragon Lord (despite the facts that the 'wimp's' father was just as big as an Ursa Major, and that they could have ended with an actual baby as leader if Spike hadn't been good enough to give the Bloodstone Scepter to her). Gnasher was amongst the worst, since unlike, say, Garble, he had some political power (being the first and sadly only dragon ambassador) and therefore saw himself as untouchable, because small creatures like ponies couldn't really hurt him, and big ones like yaks risked war

Ember was about to scold the green dragon when the therawyrm got up from his seat and walked to him. Despite the size difference between him and Gnasher, something was sure that Gnasher was two words away from exploding inside out.

“Apologize to Princess Celestia freak.” Said Praeratus.

“Excuse me!?” Screamed Gnasher in a furious tone. “Did you just call me a freak!?”

“Organic sophonts can't eat minerals and gain nutrients from them. And pretty damn sure that fat thing you call body can't be lifted at all by those tiny things you might call wings. Now apologize to her.”

Gnasher, furious, stomped towards him.

“Why you little freak, I'm gonna burn you to cinders!” Said the dragon before he inhaled, ready to burn the therawyrm to a crisp.

Those in the Hall, sans Celestia, didn't know what to expect. They thought that Praeratus would dodge the fire, or protect himself with a 'magic' shield, or something similar.

None of them expected him to actually rush forward and punch Gnasher in the belly with enough strength to send him flying into the wall several meters behind him. There were no creatures in the way, so none got hurt, at least physically.

Gnasher, however, was anything but unharmed. Praeratus hadn't just knocked the wind out of his lungs, he punched him hard enough to break his ribs despite hitting him in the gut (which somehow didn't suffer a rupture) and, judging by the small river of blood coming from both his jaws and his muzzle, cause internal hemorrhage. He was still alive, and even more surprisingly conscious, but with a furious therawyrm stomping towards him with eyes glowing violet, things looked pretty bleak for the green dragon.

Ember, Thorax and the others were naturally shocked by this. They knew he was strong thanks to Celestia's reports, but not THAT strong!

Celestia teleported between the angry Praeratus and the half dead Gnasher, not wanting him to become a murderer, despite Gnasher having started it and quite willing to burn Praeratus. If he had been a pony, she would have reacted... well, not exactly like he was at the moment, but close.

“That's enough Praeratus!”

“You know that I hate being called a freak.” Replied Praeratus. His tone was even, but it was obvious to her that he was furious. However, Celestia had the feeling that that wasn't the only reason he punched Gnasher across the Hall.

“Look at him!” She pointed at the injured dragon, who was now surrounded by several other dignitaries. “He's not even conscious!”

“He's not dead isn't he?” Retorted Praeratus, making Celestia huff.

“Could you at least look around you.” She looked up at him straight in the eye.

Praeratus did as she asked and saw that the attendants of the Convocation were staring at him in fear, shock or anger, including the leaders he wanted permission from to search in their countries.THIS made him rethink what was he about to do (just beat the dragon a bit more).

'Dammit, I really need-wait'

Celestia began to worry for real when Praeratus's expression went from ashamed to alert. Something was wrong.

“Praeratus?”

“There's something right below us.”

The words had barely left his mouth when the ground in the middle of the Hall sank, making a giant hole big enough for a troll to crawl inside.

The natives watched in fear as a seven-foot monster covered in red scales with jaws full of fangs and razor-sharp claws practically crawled out of the hole and stood at all fours in the Hall, with dirt still clinging to its claws, roaring at the top of its lungs and followed by three other monsters.

Then saw in awe as a pissed off Praeratus extended his arms and turned them all to ice from the inside out in less than five seconds. But then came another, and another, and many others until there were at least twenty of the monsters, all of them glaring at Praeratus with beady eyes full of rage.

That didn't stop Praeratus from crushing them all telekinetically and using their bodies as a plug for the hole, holding the 'plug' together with a psionic barrier, which the monsters below didn't waste time in attacking. Since the creatures were able to dig through stone the measure would be only temporary, but he didn't expect it to actually hold them off indefinitely.

“ALL OF YOU, GET THE HELL OUT OF HERE! I'L TAKE CARE OF THEM!” He screamed to the people in the Hall. The natives, who had been paralyzed by what they had seen, did as they were told so, but it was clear by the way they ran and screamed in fear that not all of them wouldn't be able to get out before the bioweapons (they looked exactly like the bioweapons aside from their smaller size and their quadrupedal stance) got in the Hall. Plus, those who were pulling Gnasher wouldn't get him out before it happened due to his size. On the plus side, it appeared that these things weren't psionics, so he wouldn't worry about aliens going crazy and killing other aliens.

“Twilight, Raven and the others are still in the liberry of the Hall!” Exclaimed Celestia.

“Then go get them. I'll take care of the monsters.”

“What!?”

“Please, as if a bunch of genetic freaks would even hurt me. Now go, the thing's are restless.”

“Wait!” Exclaimed Rutheford, running up to them with a mace on his hands, with the other leaders behind. Aspen was the only one to run. “Yak wants to help space dragon!”

“Want to help? Go with Celestia, you can't fight these things!”

“But...” Began to say the aforementioned alicorn before clawed arms began ripping the barrier of corpses and psionic energy apart.

“NOW!” He roared. The leaders nodded and ran to the library, with Celestia giving him a last look before disappearing.

'How the frack did these things reproduce?' Thought Praeratus grimly, watching on as his makeshift plug finally gave up, letting the monsters get inside the Hall. 'Questions for later, now is time to kill'

When the first monster came out of the hole, the first and last thing it saw was a clawed fist flying to its face.

Sorry for the delay, I wanted to write more of my novel before this. Also, from September 30 I'll upload the chapters twice per month rather than each ten days, to give you guys time to read the story. Next chapter will be all Praeratus kicking freaks' asses and taking names, but before I'll upload the interlude, this time about the Hegemony and it's military.

Well, here goes the second to last chapter of the month, and what a chapter, just a hundred and fifty words away from ten thousand, which is the limit I put to myself.